


Briar Patch

by Sketchy_Skittles



Category: Nomad of Nowhere (Web Series)
Genre: Family Angst, Secret Santa, this aint the happiest story ive written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 06:35:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17157044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sketchy_Skittles/pseuds/Sketchy_Skittles
Summary: after over a decade of wandering, Melinda returns to the Briar Patchpart of Return-to-stars' secret santa gift exchange on Tumblr.





	Briar Patch

It had been more than ten years, yet every day she couldn’t help but feel bad.

 

Make no mistake, she’d had some pretty solid experiences over the past decade; days spent perfecting her magic and working towards her ultimate goal of defeating that awful king. She’d spent these many years wandering Nowhere, doing everything in her power to poke holes in the king's plans, to help people of Nowhere, to prove that magic users were not the enemy here! From sneaking stolen supplies to starving towns to putting search parties off magic user’s trails, she did her damndest to help others where she could.

 

And yet, she still couldn’t help but feel upset. Upset and guilty and oh so very lonely.

Because no matter the town she went to, she still couldn’t find any magic users.

Because no matter how far away she was, she couldn’t help but regret what she’d done to her friend.

Because no matter who she met, she couldn’t help remembering that she was traveling the world all alone.

 

It was probably that more than anything that had driven Melinda back here, right where she began.

Well, sort of.

 

She stared down the sign, the very one she’d painted what felt like forever ago, knowing exactly what it said despite the thick late-night shadows that covered everything. She could catch the faint rustling of critters in the briar, beckoning her in, yet her feet stayed planted to the desert sand. Conflicting thoughts rattled around in her head, vying for attention that she couldn’t grant them all.

 

“Oh, come on, Melinda!” she mumbled to herself, pacing the desert sand, “you’ve faced _way_ worse than this! This is nothing! Just go in and say hello to him!”

 

She turned on her heels, ambling in the other direction.

“But he doesn’t remember me, and I can’t imagine he’d be too happy about a stranger walking into his house…”

 

Melinda ran her fingers through her hair, now considerably longer than it had been last time she was here. She’d been stuck in this same mental debate for quite a while now and had yet to make even the slightest bit of leeway.

She wanted, no _needed_ , to see him, to make sure he was still ok after all this time.

 

...but what if he didn’t want to see her? What if she managed to restore his memories, and he hated her for leaving him behind?

 

She looked up to the stars, to the billions of twinkling eyes, too far away to reach, but just close enough to see. She searched for a solution in those ancient flames,

 

And found one.

 

Standing tall, mustering every ounce of stubborn willpower she could, Melinda entered the briar patch. Worries be damned, she was going to see him!

  
  


Of course, it would be a whole lot easier if she could stop tripping over a vine every twelve seconds.

After about the fifteenth time, she put secrecy aside and called forth a guiding light to rest on a stray branch and make the path at least vaguely visible.

 

She wove around all manner of branches and shrubbery, watched as critters scurried off in surprise (after all, she couldn’t imagine they had seen a new face in quite a while), listened to the twigs and branches crunching underfoot as she trekked through the hardly-noticeable trail.

 

Eventually, she reached a clearing, deep in the very core of the briar. The home they built still stood, albeit slightly more worn, and her heart yearned for the comfortable warmth its well-loved walls provided. She spotted the silhouettes of what seemed like tiny stones scurrying around in some sort of game she couldn’t follow.

 

From the opposite side of the clearing, a little lantern hopped from the brambles, turning and waiting patiently as another figure, taller and quite familiar, stumbled out behind them. Out of some strange instinct, Melinda extinguished her little light and hid deeper in the bushes as the figure emerged, faintly lit by the lantern.

 

The Nomad of Nowhere.

Her oldest and closest friend.

Her _family._

 

Content as could be he strode through the open space, only to get swamped by the little stones that had abandoned their game to greet him. He knelt down and extended a hand, letting the little ones run up his arm and onto his shoulder. She watched with a soft smile as he played with the little stones.

 

Melinda went to stand, to approach him for the first time in all these years...

...but froze.

He looked so happy with his little friends, so at peace, she didn’t want to risk breaking it, And with search parties out looking for her, it was only a matter of time before she got caught, and she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if he got caught as well-or worse, came after her.

 

He headed into the house as she realized that she couldn’t let him see her, it was just too risky.

Once the door swung shut, she pushed herself to her feet before setting off back the way she came.

 

She swore to herself; once she defeated El Rey, once she knew it was safe, she would come back here. They would have a big reunion and be like a happy little family again.

 

Without an ounce of hesitation, Melinda exited the briar patch. filled with an odd sort of renewed vigor-a new purpose-she took off through the endless desert, the stars and moon her only company.

 

 

She had work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! This was my first dip into writing fanfic and it was a ton of fun.  
> comments would really candy my cane.  
> Thanks for reading!


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